A lot of people think they need to add coconut milk to cook Chicken Curry. But coconut milk are high in saturated fat and will add loads of calories to your meal as well. I like to use turmeric powder, curry powder, chili powder and onions to cook yummy curry without coconut milk. These ingredients are rich in antioxidants, natural and cheap!

This pre-packed salad from ASDA really attracted us today, so colorful with lots of green leafy vegetables inside. What made them so colorful: Beetroot, endive and lambs lettuce. Among them, lamb's lettuce is what I'm not so familiar of. It has a rosette shape with rounded leaves, matte green in color, tastes slight nutty and tangy flavor. It is very rich in provitamin A, vitamin C and B9. We added more tomatoes in there as my daughter wanted it, but Chefs would rather add boiled egg!

Chocolate, which was labelled as 'Food of the Gods' by ancient Mayans and has been a delicacy for hundreds of years, only recently has been recognized as functional food as it provides health-promoting and/or disease-preventing property beyond the basic nutrition it contains.

Cocoa and chocolate products are among the most concentrated sources of procyanidin flavonoids, catechin and epicatechin (J Am Coll Nut, Oct 2001). Flavonoid is an antioxidant chemical which helps prevent cell damage reduces clot formation and improves blood sugar levels. Chocolate also contains an antioxidant called polyphenol - associated with reducing the risk of heart disease. A 1.4 ounce (40 gram) chocolate bar contains around 250 mg of polyphenol, about the amount in half a glass of red wine. Cocoa powder contains the highest amount of polyphenol, followed by dark chocolate, while white chocolate contains none.

Cocoa products are excellent sources of catechins which can also be found in green tea. They are believed to protect humans from cancers (gastric, esophageal, skin cancers), fight viruses, slow aging and reduce the risk of heart disease. The darker and bitter the chocolate, the more catechins content it contains.

50-57% of the whole cocoa bean is cocoa butter, of which 34% is stearic acid, a saturated fat we are taught to avoid. However, a research conducted by the Pennsylvania State University found that when subjects consumed a 1.4 ounce chocolate bar in place of a high carbohydrate snack, chocolate does not raise bad cholesterol (LDL) levels, but rather increases HDL levels. HDL is also known as 'good' cholesterol as high levels of HDL seem to protect against heart attack.

So, choose smart, eat smart! Choose dark chocolate (ones containing 70% or more cocoa) and keep the size to 1.4 ounces (40gram) at a time, a size which calories can be burned by a 20- minute workout. Alternatively, try chocolate with soy filling to increase the isoflavone intake, a chemical component found in soy, which believe to help alleviate menopausal symptoms, heart disease and osteoporosis.

By taking good control of your health through smart choices with balance and moderation, you can enjoy chocolate as a functional food, with a lot of promising health benefits.